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Sunday, July 27, 2008

Today is B's birthday and while in the middle of cleaning the house, preparing a little get together for him and speed training a puppy, I realised that I always wish my parents a happy birthday or mother's day, father's day, etc...on this blog but I rarely wish B. a happy birthday. Without wanting to make a big deal about it, I think he is a big deal, but a crunchy, colorful and sweet one.

He is very instrumental to my being here doing the things I do and sharing things with you. He happily ventures his spoon in dishes and desserts I set out in front of him. He knows to always take his cell phone with him while running an errand for me at the grocery store. He has quickly come up with associations to remember who is so and so that I keep talking about, and stopped asking me if I have the hiccups when I giggle at the screen chatting online at night. He looks forward to other bloggers' visits as he has an excuse to use all the attachments on the vacuum cleaner (he is so going to yell at me for telling you this!). But more importantly he has more than accepted my bizarre schedule as of late and for that he deserves extra kudos and a public "I Love You - You Rock - Happy Birthday!"

There will be cake for him and a few guests for dinner tonight but this morning he will have some pavlovas filled with fresh blueberries, raspberries and strawberries. Boy do I love summer lately! I can't get enough of the gorgeous fruits at the market lately and berries have been either my breakfast or my lunch a couple lots of times this week . I can't say he chose to have this has a birthday breakfast but it's been a juggling of egg yolks and egg whites lately in the fridge and some room had to be made. Knowing him, I know he'll have more than one!

I made the shells when Chris was here and kept them in an airtight container at room temperature so they would still be crunchy today. There were just a touch softer in the middle but with the heat and humidity of South Carolina, that was to be expected. To fix that, I turned the oven on to 350F last night before going to bed, put the meringue shells in it and turned the oven off. It helps give them some of that crisp back so I can still hear him say "so-crunch-what is-crunch-for dinner-crunch-tonight- crunch crunch ?"...I love that sound!

Pavlovas With Fresh Berries:

Makes 8-12 shells depending on size

3 egg whites3/4 cup sugar1 1/2 tsp cornstarch

Preheat oven to 275F. In small bowl, mix the sugar and corn starch together and set aside. In a stand mixer fitted with the balloon whisk, start whipping the egg whites to soft peaks. Start with the machine on low speed to break them a bit and get them "shaking" then increase to speed to medium high. Slowly add the sugar mixture in a slow steady stream, or one tablespoon at a time. At this point you can either spoon the meringue, making 12 circles on 2 parchment paper lined baking sheets or fill a pastry bag fitted with a star tip and pipe the shells onto them. Bake at 275 for 30 minutes and reduce your oven to 250F and continue baking them for another 30 minutes.

For the berries: I did not measure how much of each berry I was mixing in, I went with a couple of handfull of each, sprinkled some sugar on top and chopped fresh mint and let it macerate for a couple of hours.

I always joke around that it is not easy being married to a pastry chef (specifically if it is me since I am so crazy and (slightly?) mental). Ice cream machine running in the morning, too many eggs in the fridge - sounds like life in our house ;-) .

Here's wishing B a very happy birthday! Your pavlovas are perfection! I love to make them myself, but the last few attempts fell flat (literally)! I think it was too much humidity. So, I'll just sit here and enjoy yours. ;)

Wow! Talk about coincidences...just this afternoon, I was reading a novel and one of the characters was fixing "pavlovas with kiwi" for dessert. I had no idea what a pavlova was. I finally realized that it must be some sort of meringue, but was still trying to picture them in my head. Then I clicked on your lovely site and all questions were answered! :)

They look lovely, but they are meringue shells, not pavlovas. The interior of a pavlova has a marshmallowy sort of texture. In New Zealand and Australia (in one of which the pavlova was invented - we are still fighting about that) a wife used to be judged on her pavlova-making abilities (only partly joking here). Crunchy all through is a big F for fail.

Australians have more of a tendency to make hollow pavlovas like this than we do in NZ. They used to be common at catered functions too, because you can make them ahead of time and they will keep. But they are not what most people would call a "pav".

You should find a recipe for a real soft-inside pavlova and try it - they are quite different - not necessarily nicer, but different. Going from the top down, you get about a centimetre of crisp, then (if you are a good wife) 10 or so centimetres (4 inches) of soft marshmallow. A bad wife will have only maybe 3 - 5 cm of marshmallow, or it will be chewy or weepy. A tablespoon or so of vinegar is usually added - I've always assumed this is to help stabilise the marshmallow, but I'm not sure.

It is shaped like a cake and not a basket, and the top is covered with whipped cream and fruit - kiwifruit slices if you want to be traditional.

A fairly average recipe is http://www.kiwiwise.co.nz/recipe/grandma-taylors-pavlova-recipe - every woman "of a cetain age" has her own variant though.

I myself don't use cornflour (cornstarch) or vanilla. The important bit is the oven temperature and leaving it undisturbed in the cooling oven, door shut, until cold.

You can make mini ones, they tend to look like little bombes, and a more modern and less fattening version has yoghurt instead of whipped cream. Lemon honey (lemon curd if you are in America) drizzled over is good instead of fruit too.

Brownwyn: the title of the post is not "The Authoritative Post About Pavlovas" but "Berry Pavlovas" which readers understood as my interpretation of a classic, i.e the swirls instead of the cake look, the berries instead of the kiwis,etc...but if one day I do, I will make sure to include your informative comments and links.I would like to suggest this one too.

Ours were soft in the middle and gooey a plenty. I use cornstarch because of the 100% humidity so I can get some crunchy edges and a soft center.

Yes, that bronmarshall pavlova is lovely. She is definitely a good wife (much better than I am). If you were going to include any information about such things though (and you really should make one), you'd be far better off using http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pavlova_(food) than any information I could give. I am just a person who doesn't want people in foreign countries to get the wrong idea about her national dish.

So long as BetsyinKY realises than the people in her book were fixing the large soft creamy version and not the basket version.

Bronwyn: I have made pavlovas before. Again, my readers know this is a version and I trust them to look for the original. Regarding getting the rong idea about a national dish: it is good to direct people to an original version but it is important to allow people to be creative. as a guest to someone's house making Matcha Green Tea eclairs, I ould not pound it on the host about the "original". I'd be having my blood pressure through the roof everytime I turn the computer on. I welcome traditions and the creative minds it inspires.